Customer Reviews

The Rivan Codex: Ancient Texts of THE BELGARIAD and THE MALLOREON

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

As much as I enjoy the majority of David Eddings' story, a man who can only write one plotline with the same characters undergoing variation should not presume to tell anyone how to write a story. I am not disparaging the repeated retellings; I enjoy them (except Polgara) and I am buying the newest series in hardback. The fact of the matter is Eddings is not really an author; he's a storyteller. He's perfected one story and has become very good at retelling that one story in different ways. The fact that he presumes to laud himself and instruct others in their writing in his introduction has placed him squarely in the list of people whose product I love but would never wish to meet in person. The rest of the book is, frankly, boring. The piecemeal references to the various prophecies found in the book are more instructive, and mesh better with Eddings' own description of the personality of the Prophecy *anyway*. While not as self-indulgent as some such works can be, this book is not worth buying, unless you are trying to mine the world for fanfiction or a roleplaying game.

This was the perfect cap to the book series. It let you see into the mind of the author, as well as how each Kingdom and character was developed. Other than the Mallorean Gospels (which bored me to tears), I couldn't put it down! Great book!

I agree with some of the reviewer's in that this book should be read after reading the Belgarid/Mallorean. If you haven't been steeped in the world it relates to, the Codex will be a very slow and boring read. But if you are a Eddings fan, this book is a great addition to your library. I too, felt David Eddings frustrations come thru in some of his commentary, but unlike some I didn't take it personal. Give the guy a break. I highly reccommend this book to all the Eddings fans.

If you read the Belgariad or the Mallorean, or both, you need to read this too! It not only gives a clearer picture of Eddings world he has created, but he also tells you how he created it. He gives many of the main steps of how he writes his fantasy epics. So it goes to show how his technical prowess and his his touch for showing his personality have created this wonderful world.

What a piece of junk!

Is there any new information conveyed in this 'book'?

The Rivan Codex helped to pull the whole two series (the Mallorean and the Belgariad) together. It was interesting ang it made the characters and the cultures come alive. I was particlarly fascinated by the two most 'alien' cultures; the Marags and Nyissans. It posed a tantalising theory that other cultures could be viable. A poem in the shape of a snake? How cool is that?

The Rivan Codex is not actually part of the series of either the mallorean or the belgariad. Its also quite different from the Belgarathe and Polgara books. If you were expecting a continuation of the Garion storie, your going to be disappointed. But, if you want to know stuff like how the other books were written, or if you want to know more about the individual civilizations of the series then this is the book for you. It starts with a foreword by David Eddings, describing his own adventures while writing the book. After this mini-autobiography, is a series of chapters including all the books, eg. the Book of Torak, the book of Ulgo, etc. Most of this is given at the beggining of the belgariad and mallorean books, but its here altogether. Then comes the part I liked best, which is an analysis of the different cultures, i.e, stuff like what currency each race uses, what they dress like and other interesting stuff. Then to top off the book there's King Anhegs diary, which is the closest youll come to another Garion story. It gives a very small account of what happens after the mallorean. I bought it in the hope of another Garion story, and was a little disappointed at first, but in the end I enjoyed quite a bit.

This is a enjoyable book, but the reason that I gave it four stars instead of five is that the Codexes (Darine and Mrin) are not included. Those books are pretty important in the story, so I was really looking forward to reading them in full.

The Belgariad is considered an epic by most, and the Mallorean is a welcome continuation. "Belgarath" and "Polgara" were reasonably interesting, but not this one. The Rivan Codex is contains such trivialities that the authors had forgotten to include in the books, along with tidbits that no one really wanted to know. It seems as though the authors are milking the cash cow that is this series as far as it can go. Read the first ten books of the series, and the two following if you wish, but this book is by no means a necessary addition to your library.

I'm a big fan of David and Leigh Eddings, and I've read most of their books twice and more, but when I bought this one I was severely disappointed - from the minute I read the idea behind the book I started having second thoughts, but as a fan I bought it, started reading and was hooked... most of the begining, some of the himns books and the first two or three Dals books are great, but after a while I got tired of it - the dals books are a repitition of each other, when each added a little new event (which is great, but after the third it's annoying), and the religious books are mostly boring (that's the bad half). as a hooked I was realy disappointed, and considered giving it even less, although it had some good parts. if you want a good book of them try Polgara the sorceress, this one is only for the realy realy hooked.